Return of a Duho

A National Treasure

Sometimes as fate conspires, you know something is just meant to happen. When the National Museum opened its new Lucayan Gallery in November 2001 it had a wide variety of Lucayan/Taino artifacts in its own collection but there were several very important items held in museum collections overseas.

The Return of a Lucayan Duho

The Museum negotiated the return on loan some of these items from the Smithsonian Institution including a magnificent carved stone figurine (see Astrolabe Spring 2002). However there was one item missing, a Lucayan ceremonial seat, known as a duho. We were unable to gain on loan any of the three Turks and Caicos duhos held at the Smithsonian. This left a major hole in our exhibition, temporarily filled by a copy duho carved by the then Museum Manager, Brian Riggs. What the gallery lacked was an original piece.

Duho looking at the front. Image Turks & Caicos National Museum

Duho’s are ceremonial seats usually found in caves. It is unclear if they were used as seats for the chiefs during religious ceremonies, important meetings or, as some archaeologists believe, were used to support the body of an important Lucayan after death. As the locations of where the Turks and Caicos duhos were found were not recorded properly, nor associated finds such as pottery, animal remain or even human bones were recorded, this will remain a mystery.

In 1999 Joanna Ostapkowicz produced a doctorate dissertation entitled Taino Wooden Sculpture: Rulership and the Visual Arts in the 12th-16th Century Caribbean. The section on the Bahamas identified 15 duhos found in the Bahamas and 9 in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Unfortunately, she noted that the duhos found in the Turks and Caicos have conflicting data and museum records at the Smithsonian and Turks and Caicos Islands identify different owners/finders for the same pieces.

The Victoria Library Duhos

The Museum rued the loss of some spectacular wooden artifacts, including two duhos that were once on display at the Victoria Library, Grand Turk (image below). These were stolen around 1978 and had been a major loss of Lucayan artifacts, the importance of which was not completely understood at that time.

The origin of the items taken from the Victoria Library was unclear. No paperwork existed to show where the items were discovered, or by whom, nor how they ended up at the Victoria Library. The first record of the duhos could be as early as 1893 when a visitor recorded that several ceremonial seats were on display at the Library. However when the archaeologist Theodore De Booy visited the Library in 1912 he only recorded seeing wooden platters on display: it would be surprising for him to have omitted the impressive duhos if they were there. We do know that records for the 1950s and photographs taken in the 1970s record two duhos and platters on display at the library.

The Museum had spent several years trying to locate the stolen items and all of its trails seemed to point to the fact the items were stolen to order by an American collector and were now in private hands somewhere in the USA. Without proof though the Museum could not pursue the trail and in truth it was felt that the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands would probably never see these items again.

An Email from the Blue

At the beginning of 2003 Andre Godet visited the Museum. Grandson to Leon Godet, he regularly visited Grand Turk as a boy in his summer holidays and he remembered the Island with fondness. Andre, who now lives in Canada, contacted the Museum via e mail soon after his visit with some very good news.

During his visit he was impressed with the Museum and its Lucayan Gallery. Andre knew the whereabouts of a duho that had come from the Turks and Caicos Islands and offered to assist in its recovery. His next email contained a digital image of the duho. The duho in the image rang a bell. I wasn’t sure where I had seen it, so I went through our files and found two very grainy images of several Lucayan items outside the Victoria Library in Grand Turk in the 1970s. This duho looked the same as the one in the 1970s image but it was hard to tell because of the quality of the image.

Here serendipity played a hand. One of the Leicester students carrying out research at the Museum, Marina Antonopoulou, was reorganizing the Lucayan files in the Museum library. These needed major resorting and she volunteered to do this the day after Andre Godet’s email. Within a few moments she had found a collection of photographs probably taken by archaeologist Shaun Sullivan around 1978. These showed the Lucayan/Taino items at the Library, photographed in detail on the library steps. This must have happened shortly before their theft. Within these photographs were some very clear images of the library duho. The one that was being offered was definitely the one that was stolen from the library in the late 1970s.

Now that we were sure the item had been stolen we were faced with a quandary. Following international museum code of ethics, which states that a Museum must not knowingly take in stolen property, We contacted the Turks and Caicos Islands Police who advised us to seek advice from the Attorney General’s Chambers. After consultation with the Attorney General it was decided that it was not in the country’s interest to pursue the possible prosecution of anybody involved in the return of the duho. It was, in fact, deemed more important to get the item into the safekeeping of the Museum for the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands. With this backing we negotiated the return of the duho.

It turned out that the duho was now in Nassau with Andre’s father Dr John Godet, where it was for 15 years or more. The full story started to unfold. Shortly after the theft of the duho Leon Godet managed to recover it from the thieves. He knew of its importance and what a loss to the country if it was allowed to go into a private collection. It was clear that if it was returned to the Library it would probably be stolen again.

In the late 1980s Leon Godet died and his son (John) and grandson (Andre) took some of his possession to Nassau where they were living. This included the duho. After seeing replicas of duhos in Nassau, Andre’s mother realised the items importance. Following their trip to Grand Turk in 2003 the family realized that there was now an organization that could provide a secure display space so the item could again be viewed by the local people. This was the Turks and Caicos National Museum.

The Return

After offering the item to the Turks and Caicos National Museum, Dr John Godet met with Kim Outten Stubbs, Curator of the National Museum of the Bahamas. After this meeting John delivered the duho to her office. Kim was also keen to see the item come back to the Turks and Caicos Islands because her family originated from these Islands. Kim employed Jeff Martin, owner of Atlas Movers, to make a secure packing case (image at left), to provide the paperwork for the item to be exported and to carry the item from the Museum’s offices to the airport. Kim also approached Mr. Milo Butler III, Manager, Customer Services, Bahamasair, and he agreed to waive the freight charges for the journey from Nassau to Providenciales.

Clinton Wilson, Collector of Customs for the Turks and Caicos, agreed to allow the item to be cleared at the Museum so that the crate wouldn’t have to be opened at Providenciales or Grand Turk airports, which could have put the object at risk. Skyking agreed to carry the item onto Grand Turk free of charge. The transfer of the duho from Nassau to Grand Turk could not have gone any smoother, which can be put down to the professionalism of customs officers in both countries and the ground crew for Bahamasair and Skyking.

On the 22nd October 2003 there was a reception at the Museum to officially unveil the duho in its new display case. The item is now on display in the Lucayan Gallery (image at right).

The Museum would like to thank the following for assisting us with the return and display of the duho:

Bahamas National Museum, especially Kim Outten Stubbs

Friends of the Turks and Caicos National Museum for funding the shipping crate and display case

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The Colors of the Turks and Caicos Islands

RED was chosen to represent the nation’s capital, Grand Turk. The color is taken from the red/pink fruit found on the national plant, the Turks Head Cactus. They were once found in abundance on Grand Turk before they were removed to accommodate the salt ponds.

WHITE was chosen to represent Salt Cay. The color came from salt. The salt industry was largely responsible for populating the islands of Salt Cay, Grand Turk and South Caicos.

ORANGE was chosen to represent South and East Caicos. The color comes from the Spiny Lobster and fish and reflects the fishing industry in the “Big South.”

TAN was chosen to represent Middle Caicos. The color is taken from the raw material (thatch) that once covered the roofs of the houses. It is also used to make straw hats, baskets and brooms. Middle Caicos is known for the superior quality of native craftwork.

GREEN was chosen to represent North Caicos and Parrot Cay. The color is taken from the fruit trees and other types of trees that flourish in the most fertile of all the islands. North Caicos is also home of Wade’s Green Plantation, the most successful of Caicos Islands cotton plantations.

TURQUOISEwas chosen to represent the islands of Providenciales, Pine Cay and West Caicos. The color is taken from the beautiful turquoise waters that surround these islands on which our famous Caicos fishing sloops sail. These turquoise waters also contribute to our newest industry, tourism.

PINK was chosen to represent the beautiful conch shell, flamingoes and the numerous uninhabited cays that make up our chain of islands.

YELLOW represents God’s glory as the sun shining down on all our beautiful islands and cays. The sun also contributes to our newest industry, tourism.

View a timeline of important events and dates in the history of the islands

A Few Artifacts You’ll See at the Museum

Our collections represent the rich historical, cultural and natural heritage of the Turks and Caicos Islands and its people.

Lucayan Duho

Photo courtesy of Joanna Ostapkowicz. The Duho is one of the rarest artifacts in the museum’s collections. It was used a ceremonial seat for the cacique or chief of the Lucayans, the first inhabitants of these islands.

Fresnel Lens

The Grand Turk Lighthouse was erected in 1852 and was originally designed to burn whale oil and had an Argand reflector lamp. In 1943 the lighthouse was converted to a Fresnel Lens one of these lenses is now on display at the Museum.

Swivel Gun

The Molasses reef wreck, an early Spanish Caravel was equipped with three types of breech-loading swivel guns, one type is shown above. The swivel guns are thought to be anti-personnel weapons placed wherever convenient along the ship’s rail.

Salt Industry Post Card

The museum has diverse collection of early postcards of the Turks and Caicos Islands. Most post cards depict scenes on Grand Turk, the capital and from the salt industry.

Governor of the Turks & Caicos Islands

H.E. Dr. John Freeman

“The National Museum is a TCI national treasure, which has grown from a quiet private initiative into a national resource and repository. It has gradually accumulated objects and papers of inestimable value to the collective sense of belonging in these Islands.

It now serves as a living expression of a collective memory; and without a collective memory there can be no sense of collective identity. The National Museum should be dear to the hearts of all those who live on these Islands.

I am struck deeply by the valuable holdings; not just of wonderful artefacts, but also of the tremendously evocative paper holdings, the records of births and deaths, the evidence of continuities in the Islands' population – who they were and who they are now. Visiting the museum, one gets a real sense of how life in these Islands were lived.

The TCI lives in all its cultural and historical richness through the National Museum. It is the responsibility of all of us to ensure that it remains such an important part of TCI’s heritage and I encourage all readers to visit and support it.”
Dr. John Freeman H.E.
Governor of the Turks & Caicos Islands

Premier of the Turks & Caicos Islands

Hon Sharlene Cartwright Robinson

"As a proud Turks and Caicos Islander and a holder of a degree in history, I have always taken a very keen interest in history generally and then in the history, heritage and culture of these wonderful Turks & Caicos Islands.

From my humble beginnings growing up in the fishing capital, South Caicos, and the real capital, Grand Turk, to becoming the first female Premier of the Turks & Caicos Islands, history has played a big part in my life.

The Turks & Caicos National Museum is a veritable goldmine of information on the history of these islands; spanning over a thousand years, from the Pre-Columbian Indians, to the space age and everything else in between.

I welcome you to the TCN Museum website, and should you be fortunate enough to visit Grand Turk, I encourage you to visit this marvelous national repository, and immerse yourself in the surprisingly deep and rich history of these beautiful by nature Turks & Caicos Islands".

President of Turks and Caicos Islands Community College

Dr. Hubert A. Fulford

"My interest in history and research goes back to my years as a student at the then Grand Turk Secondary School, where my teacher and later mentor, the late Helena Jones Robinson instilled a curiosity in me to appreciate context. At that time, not fully appreciating the impact that curiosity would have on me, I sought only to please my teacher.

Pursuing tertiary education at various institutions, in various countries and at various levels, my initial foundation of inquiry was further stimulated. Libraries and museums would form a very important part of my education, specifically during my studies in Jamaica, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Returning home after my studies abroad, my first visit to the Museum so captivated me that I began to tell all persons, visitors and islanders alike, that a visit to the museum was a MUST! The quaintness, yet thorough organization and presentation of artifacts of various kinds avowed me.

I found tremendous joy in taking my TCI Studies students to the Museum, standing back and listening to their expressions of excitement and curiosity as the curators and assistants would walk them through the various displays and presentations.

The Jamaican expression “likkle but tallawah” (small but strong) aptly fits our Museum. The significance of this institution to our history and culture cannot be over stressed.

Welcome to The Museum. A combination of history, culture and enchantment awaits you."
Dr. Hubert A. Fulford
President of Turks and Caicos Islands Community College

Historic Photo Galleryof the Turks and Caicos Islands

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